tax resistance movement

Organized and ad hoc responses to government taxation policies. The movement is worldwide and tends to mobilize in open societies in which tax increases occur or in which taxes are used for government actions that taxpayers dislike. The movement takes a variety of forms, from illegal tax avoidance and use of the underground economy to finding "loopholes" of dubious legality to supporting candidates who promise lower taxes and participating in antitax lobbying groups. Among the largest of the U.S. groups are the National Taxpayers Union, founded in 1969; Americans for Tax Reform, 1985; Citizens for an Alternative Tax System, 1990; and the National Tax Limitation Committee, 1975. Many organizations advocate changes in or the elimination of the progressive income tax system, recommending a national sales tax system and eliminating expensive government social services programs.